Britons fly massive distances to enthuse over coastlines no more alluring than this
According to his obituary in Monday's paper, Professor Paul Wilkinson of St Andrews University, the expert on terrorism and political violence, resisted all temptations to move on to other institutions that sought him because of his affection for its citizens and its university students and staff. But it wasn't just the people who kept him in the kingdom of Fife; it was also, clearly, the place. With his wife, Sue, he lived in the nearby harbour village of Crail, at the eastern end of a coast which is one of the glories of Britain. Perhaps the professor's walks with his dogs took him westward as far as St Monans, with its brightly coloured cottages and a church that is all but lapped by the water; to formally handsome Pittenweem, once home to the hermit St Fillan, whose arm, it was said, lit up to help him write in the dark; to Anstruther, with its bright open waterfront and feted fish restaurant, and beyond – less frequented by visitors – the narrow streets of Cellardyke, seeming to hint at a dark and disturbing past. Crail itself has every sense of having once been a town of substance: the streets down to the harbour are crooked and quirky, but those at the top are broad and important. And from every point on the coast you may get, if the weather is fine (which cannot be guaranteed) rapturous views across the firth to the Isle of May, with its Stevenson lighthouse. Britons fly massive distances to enthuse over coastlines no more alluring than this – a place to be savoured in peace and tranquillity, with or without a dog.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/25/coast-around-crail
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